The objective is to increase the Minnesota Health Department's technical capacity to make management decisions concerning fund allocation to cancer control efforts, first in the area of smoking and ultimately in other cancer control areas. Funding will enhance the continued development of a model plan in smoking that includes four phases: planning, implementation, evaluation, and decision-making. Stages three and four will be developed through funding for this project. Utilizing data to be collected from several sources will enhance evaluation technology and result in higher quality decisions about future fund allocation to and program direction of statewide nonsmoking efforts.
Specific aims of the project are two-fold: A) Proceed with the evaluation and decision-making stages of the model plan in the area of smoking; B) Apply this model plan to efforts in other areas of cancer control, including diet and breast cancer detection. Present statewide efforts in the area of smoking include community-based nonsmoking grants. Telephone surveys and personal interviews will be completed in intervention sites and matched control areas. Data from these sources combined with community grant evaluations, will be analyzed to evaluate intervention effects and intervention process. Management decisions concerning future allocation and program direction will, therefore, be greatly enhanced.
